Came across this news story today – and seems like it could easily happen. Especially if the parents find you before you find them, and you happen to be moving in a direction that was away from the parents.

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> Police concluded that the man was only trying to help. “We had an independent eyewitness that saw him walking around, asking, ‘Is this your parents? Is that your father?’” Sgt. Gary Gross with the Lakeland Police Department told Fox 13 News.

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> The father and his friends were not satisfied with the man’s explanation or that of the police. “So, I guess in Lakeland, you can kidnap a child and get away with it,” the father said to police, local media reported. The police report, local media said, described the father as “increasingly agitated.”

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> Police, however, called him a “good Samaritan” in their statement. “It is understandable how parents can possibly be upset in a situation involving a lost child,” the statement said. “However, this incident truly involved a good Samaritan trying to assist a lost child finding” her parents.

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> Interviewer: [In the interview much later, knowing all of this] Are you sorry you attacked this man?

> Father: No, not at all

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> family members and friends went on social media and shared the man’s photo, his Facebook page and his place of business, “calling him a child predator”

> The father made no apologies for his actions but told The Post, “All that matters is that my daughter is home safely.”

Nice, bro. It’s cool that your daughter is safe and all, but a little foul that you have no remorse for potentially ruining a good person’s life in the process. Additionally, why do we have nothing for parents who manage to lose their kids?

I found a lost child at the zoo once. Had to loudly say “let’s get you to security” the whole way to the kiosk because I was afraid of this. Luckily, the parents had noticed her gone, and were approaching the kiosk as well. I have been an uncle since I was sixteen, and you recognize that peculiar kind of cry that means absolute terror. About broke my damn heart.

>The father and his friends were not satisfied with the man’s explanation or that of the police. “So, I guess in Lakeland, you can kidnap a child and get away with it,” the father said to police, local media reported.

No, but in Lakeland you can punch someone six times in the face and get away with it. Do good deed and get bruised face, such a lovely world this is.

If you want to be a good samaritan, stay with the child or bring them to the proper authority. Don’t go wandering with the child, otherwise irrational parents like the people in the article will just demonize any good intentions you may have.

*The father and his friends were not satisfied with the man’s explanation or that of the police. “So, I guess in Lakeland, you can kidnap a child and get away with it,” the father said to police. The police report described the father as “increasingly agitated.”*

*According to police, family members and friends went on social media and shared the man’s photo, his Facebook page and his place of business, “calling him a child predator,”*

I’m a dad who spend a lot of time with my kids to do chores we can do together, and sometimes people are acting all paranoid about me when one of them has a tantrum or something. It almost makes me want to drop my own child and yell *stranger danger* and just run away. Horrible feeling. I understand it, but it just makes me sad. I don’t even dare to talk to other children no more, learned that real quick.

I went to uni 7/8 years later than normal, so was a bit more ‘mature’ and could handle my drink. On the fifth day of Fresher’s Week, one of the girls on my block (18, tiny little blonde girl) was dumped outside the block door, completely passed out drunk by ‘friends.’ They dumped her, banged on the door and ran.

I’d finished the night early, gone back to sleep… so was the only one sober enough to be woken up by the banging. Found her, carried her back to her room. I spent about 30 seconds trying to rouse her, get some water into her (you never, ever leave someone that drunk alone)… before I had a moment of clarity.

Tiny little blonde girl (a very pretty one wearing very skimpy clothes), passed out drunk, 25 year old sober-ish dude in his boxers, alone in a room. NOPE. Went and hammered on some doors and rousted up some of the other kids to help me babysit.

I’m not *moving* anywhere with the child. I’ll wait with them, or call over an employee or other official-type person. But I’m not wandering around with a child that ain’t mine, good intentions be damned.